Being new to silent computing, and computer building in general, the advice of your community would be greatly appreciated.

I intend building a rig for gaming and music, often at the same time, and so I want it to be both reasonably powerful and quiet.

I would like to use a 5870 card, but can't decide on cooling options. Was looking at an aftermarket cooler (Arctic Cooling Accelero XTREME 5870) as it promises to cool the card quietly. However, Silverstone advise in relation to the FT02 that if the disipation of the heat is positioned physically lower than the heat source on the installed card, this could result in non-optimal performance, which would seem to make the aforementioned cooler less than ideal. Could this cooler, however, be effectively used in conjuction with a Lian Li 2 x 120mm Slot Cooler (BS-08B) placed in the adjacent slot?

If this solution would not be effective, can anyone suggest an alternative?

Just in case it's relevant, here are the other components in my system. I have purchased all but the Momentus XTs and the graphics card/graphics cooling

Have you seen our review of http://www.silentpcreview.com/gelid-icy-vision ? It topped every other VGA cooler we've looked at so far... though admittedly, we haven't reviewed the latest multi-fan coolers from Arctic C. But it can definitely cool a 5870 running full tilt with Furmark to ~80C at ~20 dBA/1m noise level. I just tried this last week in a SFF system.

I would not worry about Silverstone's advice, btw, if you decide to go w/ AC. Non-optimal -- so the thing runs a couple degrees hotter. Big deal. I think the cooler will take care of the GPU cooling; the case fans only have to get the hot air out of the case.

I can't say anything about noise, but I'd guess the AC would cool better than the GELID. Just a quick look shows that it is much bigger, fitting three 92mm fans as opposed to two. Of course, an extra fan means extra noise, depending on fan speeds.I have an AC Accelero S1 on my 5870, and while idling, keeps it to ~40C, with minimal airflow. While running Furmark, it manages to keep the card at ~90C, but that's with fans at full pelt, with lots of noise. But the card is idling most of the time anyway, and means its almost silent majority of the time. Hope that helps.

I have an AC Accelero S1 on my 5870, and while idling, keeps it to ~40C, with minimal airflow. While running Furmark, it manages to keep the card at ~90C, but that's with fans at full pelt, with lots of noise. But the card is idling most of the time anyway, and means its almost silent majority of the time. Hope that helps.

How are your fans setup? Is there one directly attached to the S1? Or have you got a case fan blowing down the length of the S1 such as in my setup?

Pretty much the same. I also have a 92mm fan wedged between my speaker and monitor cables at the back blowing in fresh air. I actually added the 92mm fan after reading one of your posts I believe, but I found having the fan as an intake resulted in better temperatures compared to having it as an exhaust.

I used to have a Scythe SS 120mm fan ziptied to the S1, but I'm experimenting with having a 9800GT for hybrid PhysX/Cuda, so I removed it to free up the PCI-E slot. You can see the 9800GT sitting on top of my case. It actually has an Accelero X2 (The ATI version) installed, left over from my old X1800. Required some hacking, but that's another story. ;]

After reading the excellect review on the Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme Plus, decided to take the plunge and but a GTX 480 and fit the aforesaid VGA cooler. http://www.silentpcreview.com/Arctic_Co ... treme_PlusInitially would never have purchased this card due to the heat/noise issues. However, glad I did. Brilliant performance, nice overclocking (core up from 700 MhZ to 847 MHz) and whisper quiet with ACAXP when installed in case.

After reading the excellect review on the Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme Plus, decided to take the plunge and but a GTX 480 and fit the aforesaid VGA cooler. http://www.silentpcreview.com/Arctic_Co ... treme_PlusInitially would never have purchased this card due to the heat/noise issues. However, glad I did. Brilliant performance, nice overclocking (core up from 700 MhZ to 847 MHz) and whisper quiet with ACAXP when installed in case.

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